Dark Futures
by Bill Gopher
Summary: A vision of a bleak time set just after the defeat of the First Evil. How will the world handle the knowledge that monsters and the horrors under your bed are real?


**Dark Futures**

Sometime in 2011 Appalachian Mountains… "Are we safe here?" Anne asked her 'protector' as they walked into the main section of the warehouse that was also doubling as a safe-house until they got a message it was safe to come out.

"Yeah," Riley Finn answered Anne. "We've got 2 Heavy Weapons teams guarding the perimeter. Plus all the possible ways into the mountains are mined, booby-trapped and we have snipers all over the place. An ant would be lucky if it could get within 100' feet of this place without getting blown up."

"But this is a 'Slayer'!" Anne said the last word in a whisper. "Is that…"

"Look," Riley said annoyed as he cut Anne off. "No one knows we're here and you've got the all the resources of the Supernatural Defense Agency protecting you. So nothing is going to happen, alright?" Riley said curtly.

"Alright," Anne said reluctantly.

"You stay here while I go check out the rest of the room," Riley ordered Anne and just then the power in the room died, plunging the room into darkness. Thirty seconds later the emergency lights on the walls kicked in and filled the room with red lights. Grabbing the walkie-talkie off of his belt, "Echo One-Five, come in." Riley called the guards at the gate. "Echo One-Five, this is Marigold. Come in." But only the sound of static greeted him and Riley turned the radio off when he saw the figure of a woman standing on a stack three crates high across from him. "You."

"You killed her and now you're going to pay Riley Finn!" the woman said as she jumped down to land in front of Riley.

Riley had no doubt in his mind he was faster and more skilled than this Slayer, he'd trained with the best teachers out there and he could defeat any one of them.

Moving into a basic Akido stance she waited for Riley to make his move and she didn't have to wait long as Riley charged her. Not making any move to attack Riley, she parried all his attacks even as she studied his moves and looked for the weakness in his style that would let her get past his guard and kill him.

He couldn't believe it, she'd not only dodged or parried all his attacks and his best moves, but she'd made no attempt to attack him! Taking several steps back to give him some room, Riley drew 2 daggers and smiled coldly. The daggers had been coated with a poison that he was told was utterly fatal. He didn't even need to cut her skin, just touch her with the flat of the blade and she'd be history. Slipping into a knife-fighters stance, Riley knew that once she was dead he'd get a medal for her head.

Riley began to weave the daggers in a complex pattern that made them seem to blur to the human eye and then lunged at her with both blades. Riley saw he'd caught her by surprise and watched in satisfaction as the daggers were about to hit her when she moved in a blur out of the way and Riley felt a searing pain in his wrists only to be followed by 2 blows against his chest and Riley fell onto the ground face first.

Looking down, she watched as Riley rolled onto his back his handless arms waving in the air and a pink froth fell from his lips. A few moments later she watched as his body began to spasm and she knew he only had seconds to live. Kneeling next to him she took his head and held it so she could look in his eyes as he died. "Give Andrew my regards in Hell!" she snarled as she saw the light dim in Riley's eyes as Death finally claimed him. Getting up, she went to go searching for the next one and sheathed the katana.

Anne saw the dark haired Slayer as the walked under the red lights, scrambling backwards Anne tried putting as much room between her and the homicidal Slayer as possible. It wasn't until she felt herself back into the wall that Anne realized she had no-where else to go and the Dark Slayer closed the distance in a slow, sensual walk towards her. "You promised you'd let me live! I gave you what you wanted, now go away!" Anne said shrilly.

"Yes you did, and yet I find myself troubled by one thing." She said utterly calmly. "You knew she was walking into a trap and you said nothing! Not a SINGLE FUCKING WORD!" The Dark Slayer yelled as rage filled her face and body language. Quickly, the Dark Slayer brought her anger under control and watched as Anne held her hand under her jacket. "Oh, are you trying to signal your 'friends' over at the Agency?" She pulled a small black box the size of a pack of cigarettes with a row of 3 colored lights, "This is a scrambler device. It's quite illegal and it blocks all transmissions; video, audio, satellite or radio from leaving the area and this has been on for quite a while so they won't be getting here before you're dead." She explained and returned the scrambler to the pocket on her leg.

"I kept my word and told you where you could find Warren! You said you'd let me live!"

Drawing the katana, she slashed down and cut Anne open from her right shoulder to her left thigh. A quick thrust and she skewered Anne through the heart, "I lied." She said simply before using Anne's clothing to clean her katana before sheathing it in the scabbard on her back. Taking out a worn piece of folded paper she opened it and looked at her list, crossing off 2 more names, leaving only one at the bottom, before dropping the paper on Anne's body and leaving; the name was Xander Lavalle Harris.

Lieutenant General Samuel Thomas, USAF (Ret.), looked over the group of 6 men and 3 women on the large screens that lined the walls of the massive room he was in and wondered when he could get away and take something for the migraine that had been killing him for the last 45 minutes.

"So General Thomas, are you just stupid or incompetent?" Sally Abraham, the head of MI5 asked in annoyed tone. "When you were brought in to head the SDA you came with the highest recommendations as to your skills. But your actions these last 6 months and today have me beginning to wonder how much of those 'recommendations' were truly warranted!"

"I have done everything that this council has asked of me, Ms. Abraham, even when I have expressed my concerns regarding some of the more hair-brained schemes I have seen lately. When we began Operation Clean Sweep 26 months ago, I warned you that the scope of your plan was too broad and allowed me not enough time to properly evaluate the threat level of these so-called 'Slayers'!" Pausing, General Thomas took the time to look at the image of each council member before starting to speak again. "And now that you are seeing the results of 'your plan' blow-up in your faces you come crying to me about it!"

"And yet you did not refuse to carry out Operation Clean Sweep even though you knew it had critical flaws, correct?" Brigadier General Rolf Diederichs, Head of the Military Intelligence Branch of the South African Defense Force (SADF), who was a heavyset man, asked.

Shaking his head, "I didn't, because if I refused you would have replaced me with someone less competent then myself and you'd have more problems and dead soldiers. These 'Slayers' aren't the pushovers you were expecting. They've shown that they are well organized and well lead and courageous in battle. In all the clashes we've had with the Slayers, we've only managed to capture a handful of them. If you had given me the time I asked for I could have minimized the casualties we've absorbed so far. The only reason we aren't losing is because numerically we have the advantage over them. And numbers will win out in a war of attrition."

"Then what do you call this most recent failure to protect Anne Bolay as well as the loss of Agent Finn?" Annabelle Goethe Bolay, the US Director of Homeland Security asked.

"I consider it a minor setback at worst Director Bolay. We are working on the long-term goal of the total eradication of these Slayers and the other supernatural creatures, not something that could be considered a 'stroll through the park', Director. Of course there are going to be mistakes made during this process, to expect otherwise is sheer folly."

"So then General Thomas, what is the status of our operation?"

"It's moving along, although at a slower pace. Our initial successes caught the demons, Slayers and Witches off-guard and unprepared. Casualty rates for them were quite high during the initial days. Now as can be expected the loss: kill ratio has dropped out of our favor as well, from 1:5 to 1:9.5, but our projections show that this war will be over in no more than 10 years." General Thomas replied.

"Good General." Rolf Diederichs said with a strong nod towards Annabelle. "Very good then."

**The Past**

It started as how most things do, relatively innocuously. In 2005, when the explosion across the globe of Slayers had caught the attention of some people, but most had attributed the oddities of those girls to drugs, government conspiracies or aliens coming to take over the planet with a new breed of human/alien hybrids.

Too bad for them, truth is stranger than fiction.

Right after they had defeated the First Evil and Buffy realized she could do **anything** she wanted; she had felt giddy with excitement and left all things Slayer related to Faith, Willow and Giles. Instead Buffy had taken Dawn all over Europe, to the great cathedrals, monuments, museums and sights all the while spending the time she hadn't had before with Dawn. A year later Buffy and Dawn showed up in San Francisco and at the corporate headquarters of **Slayers, Inc.** which was headed by **CEO** Rupert Giles. After many warm greetings from all her friends, Buffy and Dawn quickly found a house and moved themselves and all their possessions from their Euro-trek in.

Buffy had decided during her trip, that she actually **missed** the Slaying and after working things out with Faith and Willow, had gone to work for them helping with the training of the new Slayers. As well as leading missions about the globe to various demon hotspots that needed to be put out before they could do too much damage. Buffy had also come to some realizations about Faith, mainly that she had been holding onto the past too long, it was time to let go and start anew with Faith. Strangely enough, Buffy had found that with that decision the irritation factor of seeing Faith faded away and in Faith Buffy found an intelligent and capable woman and Slayer. Soon enough, the two women started hanging out with the other and liked it.

Unbeknownst to those two however there was a pool on when they both would finally get a clue and wind up in bed. In the end it was Willow who walked away with $2000 dollars because it was 6 months later that Buffy moved out of the house with Dawn and into Faith's apartment in the Calendar Building where **Slayers, Inc.** was headquartered and housed special accommodations for the senior Slayers.

There is an old adage that 'nothing good ever lasts,' and never was there a truer statement, for 8 months to the day that Buffy moved in with Faith than there was a news story about the truth of demons, vampires and evil monsters living in the world with humanity. Giles, Willow, Buffy and Faith had called in all the Slayers that were near by and told the rest to go to ground and hide. And at first it seemed the story was going to disappear, as within a week the story was all the way back on the last page of the newspapers and fading still. It was another week later that Sam Jackson, a reporter for the L.A. Times held a news conference at night and unveiled the vampire he'd captured on national TV.

There was a lot of disbelief about the validity of an honest to god 'vampire', but after the first 3 exploded into dust the public found it difficult to **not** believe it was real. Immediately all over the world there was a huge outcry for governments to do something…anything, to protect humanity from the monsters that roamed through the world. Unfortunately 99 of the world's leaders had no clue what to do anymore than anyone else did. It was at this point that Jean-Paul Trussant stepped forward from relative obscurity in the French government, claiming he knew how to rid this world of the 'monsters.'

Six months later in January 2008, the United Nations created the Supernatural Defense Agency (SDA) and every government on the planet backed it both financially and militarily. The head of the SDA was none other than Jean-Paul Trussant.

**Present Day**

Once she was off the mountain and away from the warehouse did she let herself relax some, but it was another 2 hours of air travel until she was safely back at the hidden Slayers headquarters. Striding past the Slayers inside, she headed straight for her room only to find a certain redheaded witch waiting for her at the door to her room.

"I don't want to talk right now Willow." Buffy said irritably as she tried to get around Willow to the door.

"No you don't and that's why I'm not going anywhere Buffy." Willow answered as she crossed her arms and put on her 'Resolve Face'.

"Damnit Wills, I just need some privacy right now!"

"Fine." Willow said, stepping aside as she opened the door for Buffy. A look of surprise came over Buffy's face before she walked past and into her room. Following Buffy inside Willow closed the door behind her and locked it. "You've been locking everything inside of you for months now and I've watched it tear you apart bit by bit, even as you've put out this façade of strength for everyone to see."

Buffy heard Willow's footsteps behind her, "Willow..." Buffy started to say when she felt Willow come up behind and hug her. For Buffy that touch was enough for the wall she'd built up to crumble, releasing the emotions and pain she'd hidden deep inside of her over Dawn and Faith's deaths.

"Feel any better Buffy?" Willow asked, understanding the sense of loss Buffy was feeling.

"Yeah. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come apart on you like that..."

"You stop that right now missy! You have gone through hell the last few months; first losing Giles and Slayers, Inc and then just a day later you find out Dawn & Faith were killed by the SDA. You need to cut yourself some slack, because no-one else is going to do it for you."

Buffy looked at Willow and for the first time didn't see Tara's lover or her best friend, but a beautiful and sexy woman. Buffy fought back an urge to lean forward and kiss Willow's lips to see if they really tasted like strawberries.

Willow had known this was coming; she'd sensed it with Buffy for a while and just ignored it or at least tried to. But she saw Buffy's eyes darken with lust, part of her wanted Buffy to kiss her and part of her was feeling outraged that she'd even consider it. But that second voice was hushed as Willow leaned in and kissed Buffy gently on the lips, only to have the kiss deepen as Buffy opened her mouth.

Willow felt Buffy's arms wrap around her and run up under her shirt and along her back. Moaning at Buffy's touch Willow brought up one hand to Buffy's face while the other one traced Buffy's breast through the material of her shirt. Willow saw the nipple harden as it pushed against the fabric of the shirt and brought her mouth down on it, sucking on the nipple through the shirt before pulling the shirt up over Buffy's head and revealing Buffy's breasts.

"Clothes. Off. Now!" Willow heard Buffy say urgently and they proceeded to undress the other. Within moments both women were naked and on Buffy's bed, their clothes tossed all over the room in their haste to get rid of the offending articles of clothing.

A part of Buffy felt guilty as she gazed at Willow's naked form, but another stronger part needed to share this and revel in her being alive. With that thought settled Buffy leaned forward and gently pushed Willow backwards onto the bed.

Leaning forward Buffy started kissing, licking and sucking on Willow's body, starting from her neck and slowly working her way down, taking special attention to both of Willow's breasts before moving down her flat stomach and stopping just at the juncture of Willow's thighs enjoying the look of pleasure on Willow's face right now.

Willow pushed one leg between Buffy's and she felt how wet Buffy was as Buffy slid herself against Willow's thigh, even as Buffy stopped moving against her and slid down between Willow's legs and let her tongue lick the wetness on Willow's lips. Smiling, Buffy hid the urge to comment on Willow tasting like strawberries and that she'd have plenty of opportunities to tease her lover about that later on. With that Buffy dove back in, her tongue pushing into Willow, licking and sucking on Willow even as her hands were busy moving over Willow's body. Buffy felt the growing tenseness in Willow's body as well as her moans of pleasure and Willow pushed Buffy's face back down again. This time Buffy took Willow's clit into her mouth, sucking on it and she heard Willow scream her name just as she came.

Buffy pushed her tongue inside Willow again only to hear, "Goddess YES Bufffy!" and Buffy continued her pleasurable assault on Willow when Willow pulled her up and Buffy stopped, sliding her body up along Willow's until they were face to face. Buffy felt Willow's hand slid down her body, caressing her breasts and teasing her nipples before they cupped her butt hard, pulling Buffy hard against Willow and Buffy groaned.

Willow felt Buffy lift herself up slightly to give her access and Willows hand slid in between Buffy's thigh's and all the wetness that was building up there. Shifting, Willow turned sideways so that she was now on top of Buffy, her hand played at Buffy entrance even as Buffy hunched down trying to get more contact.

Willow easily slid 2 fingers inside Buffy and started a quick pace as she sensed how close Buffy was to the edge and needing this badly. Barely 2 minutes had gone by when Willow felt Buffy's muscles clench around her hand and Buffy screamed Willow's name as she came.

Lying down next to Buffy and pulling her close, Willow enjoyed the feeling of Buffy's body against her only to hear a loud knocking on the door. "Damn!" Willow cursed as she looked around for her clothes, but the closest piece was a sock.

Buffy stilled Willow's frantic movements, "Shhh!" Buffy said quietly and got up from bed, walking quickly over to the door. "Yes?" Buffy asked as she cracked the door open and looked out to see 2 of the new Slayers at her door.

"Miss Buffy, you'll never believe it!" The slender brunette Slayer who knocked said excitedly.

"Believe what?" Buffy asked suspiciously.

"It's Faith! She's ALIVE!"

"What?" Buffy asked even as her face drained of color. "Where is she?"

"She's in the infirmary, she's got some injuries the autodoc is tending to..."

Buffy slammed the door in the girl's face and ran around picking her clothes up and putting them on in record time. She was about to leave when Buffy realized Willow was still in her bed. Quickly Buffy strode over and kissed Willow on the lips, soundly. "I have to go see her, but I want to see you later. K?" With that Buffy was out the door and running down towards the infirmary.

Willow heard what the girls told Buffy and cursed herself mentally for letting this happen. She had a perfectly adequate relationship with Kennedy and she went and not only screwed that up but her friendship with Buffy to boot! Holding herself Willow cried alone, fearing what she'd just jeopardized and lost...

Buffy pushed her way into the infirmary and paused at the entrance as she looked inside. There was a roughed up looking Faith with her right arm in a cast, her once black hair was now burgundy and she was looking much thinner and leaner. "Faith," Buffy whispered.

Faith turned to the entrance when she heard a voice she thought she'd never hear again and saw a hastily dressed Buffy standing at the doorway. "Come here B." Faith said and opened her arm for Buffy who rushed towards her and clutched at her as if she'd disappear the moment B let go of her. As they were hugging, Faith noticed the distinct 'Buffy smell' of sex on Buffy, but didn't say anything. It wasn't the time and emotions were bound to be running high right now, there'd be time enough to find out later on. For now, Faith was just happy to see Buffy again. "Missed you there, B. It was a hell of a party."

Buffy leaned back, tears running down her cheeks as she looked at Faith for what seemed forever. "I thought you were dead." Buffy said and clutched Faith tightly against her as if to prove this wasn't a dream, and for the second time today Buffy broke down crying.

Buffy's hug was actually making her arm throb, but right now she'd sooner cut it off then let go of Buffy right now. Faith could hear the mantra from Buffy of "You're alive, you're alive," repeated over and over. "Shhhh, it's okay now B. I'm back." Faith whispered back to Buffy until she felt Buffy's crying lessen and then stop. Using her good hand Faith wiped the tears off of Buffy's face. "You look pretty bad here B." Faith teased gently.

"You're not looking like a Hallmark card yourself Faith." Buffy replied softly as she gazed into Faith's eyes.

"It's not been loads of fun the last few months after I ended up on the run."

"So I heard Fai," Buffy said even as she heard the pain behind Faith's words. Hugging Faith closely again she whispered, "I know you tried. I'm just glad you're alive Faith. I thought you were dead..." and Buffy felt fresh tears start down her face again.

The two women stood there holding each other for what seemed an eternity to them, but was only a few minutes when the autodoc interrupted them.

"Excuse me ladies. I have a patient to finish tending to and that cannot happen with you two clutching at each other like leeches!"

"Doc, unless you want me to put my fist through your screen you'll shut up. This is my girl and I haven't seen her for months!" Faith snarled.

Sniffing audibly, "The insults I must put up with are just this side of unbearable! When you two are done as they say 'sucking face and clutching like leeches,' let me know so I can finish tending the injuries on Miss Winters."

"I better let you go before the doc here blows a vacuum tube, Faith."

"Alright, but stop by later and ask Red if she'd stop in if you see her?" Faith said innocently and saw the slight flush to Buffy's neck confirming her suspicions.

Reluctantly Buffy moved away from Faith and finally left the infirmary, heading quickly back to her room to talk to Willow before she felt she'd been used and thrown aside.

Buffy arrived at her room and before she opened the door Buffy knew that the room was empty and Willow was gone. Slowly Buffy walked into her room, shutting the door behind her. Walking over to her bed Buffy saw a pink silk bra laying on floor and picked it up, the smell of their lovemaking was still lingering in the room. Clutching Willow's bra, Buffy sank down onto the bed and wondered what she'd done and how Willow was going to treat her after she 'abandoned' her for Faith.

**The Past**

**April 2008 **

Everyone on the Council had smelled the smoke on the wind once the SDA was created and no-one worked harder or more tirelessly than Rupert Giles, who was determined to get every Slayer or Witch out of the line of fire that he felt was coming. And Giles impressed this fear on Buffy, Faith, Willow and the other Senior Slayers as well as the Coven in England who in turn contacted their fellow Sisters across the globe.

Just after the creation of the SDA, laws were passed forcing people who were identified as 'non-human' to be registered with their respective governments. Non-human was defined as anyone who had greater than human strength, speed, the ability to use magic, psychics, seers, witches or those who had a non-human appearance. And with that Buffy and Faith began to hear grumblings from the demon underworld about fighting back.

For the next 4 months they worked to hide or create new identities for those Slayers, Witches, Seers & Psychics, almost anyone who needed them to get out of the SDA's crosshairs and someplace safe. But unbeknownst to them, during those four months the SDA was making its own plans and on April 15, they unleashed them…

**The Present **

Willow had gotten a couple of raised eyebrow looks from a few of the 'older' Slayers as she'd walked passed them, heading towards her room. Quickly Willow walked into her room and sat down on the bed as she looked at a picture of her and Buffy standing next to each other smiling and one of her & Kennedy. "What have I gotten myself into?" Willow said to herself and wondered if things could get worse, only to hear a knock at her door.

Opening her door, Willow saw a beat up looking Faith with burgundy colored hair and a cast on her right arm standing in the doorway.

"So are you going to invite me in or do I just get to stand here and get strange looks from everyone walking by?"

"Oh, uh yeah! I'm sure, please come in." Willow babbled nervously.

Faith took the invitation and walked into the small room and sat down in the large, comfortable looking chair, feeling drained from the walk from the infirmary to here.

Willow started pacing around Faith nervously, "So, uh, Faith. Hi. So what brings you here to this place I call home or sort of but not really."

Faith cracked a smile at Willow's babble, "Relax Red. I came to talk to you about B. How was she? She didn't look like she'd slept a lot lately." Faith said, turning serious as she worried about Buffy's habit of bottling things up inside.

"I don't know how she's slept, I mean how would I?" Willow said still nervous. "But she's been keeping everything bottled up, like usual. Except this time it hit her worse and she refused to talk to anyone, especially when she found out who'd betrayed her. She just seemed to be...she was just tearing herself apart in front of my eyes and it seemed no-one else could see it. All they could see was how tough and strong she was and they took their cue from her."

"I take it you finally had a 'talk' with her." Faith asked.

"Yeah and she's as stubborn as the day is long. But she finally let it out."

Faith let the silence build inside the room for several minutes as she studied Willow carefully. "So, how long have you two been lovers?" Faith asked bluntly finally.

Willow turned red at Faith's question, "Uhhh, us? I mean me and Buffy, lovers? No! Nuh uh, nope!" Willow stammered out.

"Uh huh," Faith replied. "And that's why I could smell you on Buffy and vice-versa. Plus as I once said, Buffy had that freshly-fucked look about her. So spill Red. I'm not going to go all homicidal on you here or anything, if that's what you're worrying about."

Realizing she'd been found out Willow sighed heavily. "Just once, today as a matter of fact. I'd decided to call Buffy on how I saw her tearing herself apart over you and Dawn. It wasn't like I'd planned it or anything; it was just one thing that lead into another..." Willow finished quietly, feeling both embarrassed at being caught by Buffy's girlfriend no less and ashamed that she'd let it go that far to begin with no matter how she felt about Buffy.

Faith picked up on Willow's distress and stood up, "Look Will, I'm not blaming you or B for what happened. She was hurting and lonely and I'm guessing you are too, although you hide it better than Buffy." Putting her good hand on Willow's shoulder, "Do you honestly regret being there for Buffy, being the person she needed in her life then?" Faith took her hand and lifted Willow's face up so she could look into it. "Because I'm not."

"What?" Willow said in surprise. "But Buffy slept with me! Why aren't you angry!"

"Would you rather I was all pissed off and angry, screaming my head off about what you did, Red?" Faith said as she let Willow's chin go and stepped back. "B thought I was dead along with Dawn. She didn't cheat on me, she did end up reaching out to the only person who could understand her and that she cared about."

"Oh," was all Willow could think to say. "So what happens now? Are you going to tell Buffy you know about me and her?"

Faith looked at Willow like she had grown a 2nd head. "Are you nuts Red? You know Buffy's mile-long wide guilt streak she has, she'd never forgive herself even if she suspects I know as long as I don't say anything. At some point she'll break down and tell me and we'll deal with that then. I just want to know one thing..."

"What?" Willow said nervously.

"Do you care about Buffy?"

"Of course I do, she's my friend!" Willow said indignantly.

"No Red, I mean do you 'care' about Buffy?" Faith asked, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear it from Willow.

Willow stood silent, not wanting to answer.

"That's what I thought. For how long?" Faith pressed.

"Since the day I met her. Oh, I didn't know it then what I was feeling. But yeah, since she first came up to me and asked for my help." Willow finally admitted.

"That's a long time to carry a torch for someone. So what about Kennedy?"

"I'm not sure really. I know I care about her; I'm just not in love with her. I was going to break things off, but then all 'this' happened..."

"So what are you going to do now that the Genie's out of the bottle?"

Willow frowned, "Nothing. I mean you're here alive and I won't do anything that'll come between you two or that'd hurt Buffy!"

"I see." Faith said as she limped towards the door, "I heard an old saying once, something about closing the doors after the horse leaves the barn. You might want to keep that in mind. Night Red." Faith said as she opened the front door and left.

**The Past **

**April 15, 2008 **

At dawn across the planet the SDA struck, launching over 100 raids and assaults on demon hideouts, vampire nests, Witches Covens, suspected Slayers homes and anyone else that they had gotten a whiff of. At 7:05am Pacific Standard Time, the headquarters of **Slayers, Inc.** was destroyed when two F-15E's, each one carrying a 4,700 lb., GBU-28 "Bunker Buster" bomb were dropped on the building, when the dust cleared the building lay in ruins in the center of a huge crater and over 200 people were dead, among them was Rupert Giles and 20 Slayers who had been in the building.

By the end of the day dozens of Covens across the planet had been wiped out along with an unknown number of demons, vampires and other supernatural creatures. But other than a dozen more Slayers killed, Giles' plan had worked, pulling out many of those the SDA had wanted to get their hands on and didn't.

For Buffy the news of what was happening was bad, but what made it worse was that she was on the other side of the planet in Kazakhstan, near the Caspian Sea. But that news was overshadowed by Dawn Summer's kidnapping and the subsequent death of both her and her attempted rescuer, Faith, And the betrayal by someone she considered a close friend….

**2011**

**Scottish Highlands**

**6 months later…**

Xander stood next to Field Marshall Reinhart Von Brest in ComCent, which was 15 kilometers behind the battle lines. The large holomap showed the Gate at Delgatie Castle in Yellow, while the Slayers forces were colored Red arranged around the town of Fyvie which lay directly in the way and the German Fourth Army of the SDA facing them were Blue.

The map showed a mixed jumble all over, in places the Slayers line had seemingly collapsed even as they pulled back and yet the units facing them were still suffering high casualty rates. It was just as many of the Red units seemed to disappear that there was a blinding flash of green light, and lying in front of him, Xander saw a white envelope. Without thinking about it Xander reached down and picked it up.

Turning it over Xander saw the flowing script of Willow's handwriting and his name on the front center of the envelope and opened the letter up.

_**Xander, **_

_**Your lies and petty schemes to destroy Buffy, Faith and everyone else, has failed. As of right now, the surviving Slayers and Witches are passing through the Gate to another dimension and you have destroyed the Balance on Earth by starting a war you could never have hoped to win. Now you will be in a war against the demons of the Abyss and without any Slayers to keep them in check...**_

_**Well I'm sure you'll find out what that means, just think of what Giles told us about what Earth was really like in the beginning evil grin . I hope you live long enough to see how you've destroyed humanity there, as for us, we'll rebuild and start over. Oh and one more thing in case you missed it, Faith says "hi."**_

_**Willow Danielle Rosenberg, Priestess, Northern Alliance Coven**_

Xander stood in shock at Willow's letter to him when he suddenly had a bad feeling about what Faith's "hello" meant. Quickly Xander strode over to Field Marshall Von Brest.

"Field Marshall, I think we have a problem." Xander said and showed the Field Marshall the letter who quickly scanned it.

"Where did you get this?" Von Brest asked in a thick German accent.

"It was magicked in just a minute ago."

"Magicked in? But that's impossible! We're over 15 kilometers away and my pet Witches swore that nothing could get past their Wards!"

"And this is Willow Rosenberg we're talking about Field Marshall, the most powerful Witch EVER! Your 'pet' Witches aren't anything more than say Journeyman at best! She can blow past those Wards like they weren't even there and if she's sending this we're about to see REAL magick open up a can of 'whoop ass' on those troops! You have to call them back before it's too late!"

"So then, what does this mean? And who is this, Faith? A Slayer?"

"It's Willow's way of telling me the gloves are coming off. We have to pull the troops back now!" Xander said urgently, unable to explain the feeling of dread that was coming over him with each passing minute.

"Nonsense! We've breached their lines in no less than 3 places! If they were going to do something they would have done it before now! Within minutes we'll have broken them completely and captured this 'Gate' and once that is done the war will be over!" Von Brest said confidently.

"This is Willow we're talking about…"

"Nonsense once again. Magic is Magic and that's all there is to it. However to allay your 'fears' about this..." Switching to German, Major Lettow, Von Brest said to his Operations Officer, Contact Oberstleutnant von Seelow of the 192nd Panzergrenadier Battalion, see if they are having any problems. Turning to face the civilian 'specialist' and switching back to English. "The 192nd is one of my best battalions, you will see your fears are ungrounded, Herr Harris."

"Not for long their not." Xander muttered to himself.

Kennedy surveyed what she could of the battlefield through the darkness. She could see her line was breached in several places as the German units pushed through towards the Gate in a final frantic push. "Hell and Damnation." Kennedy cursed as she saw her options dwindling to nothing. Grabbing a nearby runner, "Go and find Amanda or Cheryl. Tell them to pull their companies back to the Gate," Kennedy yelled over the roar of gunfire and artillery. "Then go and tell Sarah we're falling back and implement Thermopylae Four. Got it?" Kennedy yelled and saw the girl nod. From her command bunker, Kennedy signaled the other Slayers in her unit to move to their fall back spots.

Generalfeldmarshal, Oberstleutnant von Seelow signals that the 192nd has broken through the center of their line and is pushing towards the Gate. He says they are maybe 10 minutes from the Gate and requests the 195th and 190th Panzergrenadiers be committed for support in exploiting the breach. said Major Lettow.

"Very good," von Brest said in English and nodded to Major Lettow who turned back to his radio. "You see, my best units have broken through. There was nothing to worry about Herr Harris," von Brest said with a confidant grin and wondered what one of these Slayers was like in bed.

"Uh huh," Xander said absently as he turned to look at the map. "Willow, what are you up to?" as he watched the center of the Slayer forces collapse suddenly and yet the flanks were holding as the Blue units drove forward into the pocket.

Kennedy saw the runner return, the young girl had a deep, bloody cut on her forehead but she never said anything. "What's your name?" Kennedy asked.

"Uh, Charlene, but my friends call my Charlie, uh Ma'am."

"What are you doing back here and not at the Gate, Charlie?"

"They said you needed runners and well Ma'am, I'm one of the best, I don't forget and I don't fail." Charlie said proudly.

Taking out three letters form the inside of her flak jacket Kennedy handed them to Charlie. "Take these to Willow, Buffy and Faith, and once you're done, go through the Gate."

"But Ma'am, I can help..."

"No, you can't. What you can do is live. Now go." Kennedy saw the girl nod reluctantly before taking off. Kennedy turned her attention to the map and watched as icons winked out one by one, and fought back tears as she watched her people fight and die to buy everyone a little more time to pass through the Gate. Kennedy never heard the artillery shell, all she saw was a blinding light and a flash of pain, and then nothing.

Moaning, Kennedy looked around and saw her bunker had taken almost a direct hit from 'something', but the bunker was burning and Kennedy wiped the blood that was dripping into her eyes. Just up ahead Kennedy saw the first German units crossing the no-man's land. All that was left between them and the Gate was her.

Standing up Kennedy moved away from the flames and into the shadows. As the first German infantry units came into sight Kennedy waited until they were almost on top of her and exploded up off the ground. Her first target died without ever knowing anything was wrong, one moment he was alive, the next he was dead with a knife through his heart. Kennedy grabbed the muzzle of the assault rifle of the next closest soldier and shoved it away just as it fired and tore up 2 members of the man's squad. Her fist shot forward and crushed his throat a moment later, before his body even dropped Kennedy was on the move to the next man, killing him as she shattered his nose and drove the shards into his brain with a palm strike.

When it was done Kennedy was panting, but she'd destroyed 3 platoons and sent the others running. Kneeling down Kennedy took out the switch for the booby traps behind her and armed it before tossing it to the ground. A single shot rang out and Kennedy screamed as she felt her shoulder explode, fighting back the pain Kennedy saw her shoulder had been hit by a large caliber round. Crawling on the ground away from where she had been Kennedy moved back into the shadows to wait the next and last group. Waiting patiently Kennedy saw a company moving forward on foot, only she could see that these were veteran troops as they moved forward.

Right then Kennedy knew she had to arm the final weapon, crawling forward Kennedy moved behind a broken section of wall when Kennedy came face to face with a terrified young boy in a German SDA uniform. Hesitating just fractionally Kennedy saw the boy bring up a Browning 9mm towards her and fire twice. But Kennedy was already moving, one round hit her in the stomach and the other bullet grazed her neck leaving a bloody furrow, but Kennedy had already buried her knife in the boy's eye by the time he had fired the second round. As she moved away from the wall Kennedy saw it shatter under the impact of a heavy machinegun or cannon only to feel something hit her from behind and knock her to the ground. Pulling out the dead man's switch, Kennedy armed it and waited for them to arrive.

Tired, Kennedy closed her eyes only to feel someone kick her and she opened her eyes to see a group of SDA soldiers surrounding her. A minute later Kennedy saw an officer walk over to her and kneel next to her as she coughed up blood. As she tried to take a deep breath Kennedy coughed up blood again and just lay still, she knew she wasn't going to make it, she'd been hit several times and now she could hear the sound of the Gate closing. The sound of running footsteps caught her attention and she saw the closest SDA soldiers run straight into the claymore's she'd had set up to slow them down from following.

"Miss, you are our prisoner. Please do not move, a medic is on his way and you will be treated with all the rights of a POW." Oberstleutnant von Seelow said to the young woman, the Slayer his mind corrected. "Get me HQ," von Seelow ordered his radioman. "Herr General, I have a prisoner. Ja. She seems to be one of the commanders. Ja Herr General."

An old movie quote popped into her mind and Kennedy couldn't help smiling at the relevance of it and her position, all her Slayer dreams had been fulfilled except for one…

Looking down von Seelow saw the Slayer smiling at something and leaned down closer to listen, the radio mic in his hand.

"To the last I will grapple with thee, from Hell's heart I stab at thee." Kennedy saw the officer lean closer to hear what she was saying. "For Hate's sake I spit my last breath at…thee," Kennedy whispered just loudly enough for the officer to hear her and looked up towards the sun as it broke over the horizon. Smiling into the sun's first rays, Kennedy took her last breath and let go of the dead man's switch.

Xander heard the officer talking and then he heard a voice he didn't think he'd hear again and his eyes widened as he recognized the quote from Star Trek II, "For Hate's sake I spit my last breath at...thee", and Xander dove to the ground; putting the holo table between him and the Gate

The explosion instantly killed everyone within 1000 meters of the Gate, but that was just the opening play in Willow's grand spell.

Willow had tapped into some very black magick for this spell when she created it. The initial explosion had been down with explosives that were setup all around, but it was the second and more powerful magical explosion that ripped the life itself out of everything and used those lives to feed the spell and keep it alive as it traveled outwards, gobbling up life everywhere in its path. Trees, birds, grass, bugs...nothing that the spell touched lived and when it was over all life had been eradicated within a 100 kilometer wide circle around the Gate.

**The Past**

By the time Buffy returned to San Francisco, it was already too late. In a space of 6 hours, all of Buffy's family had been eradicated by the SDA and she had returned to a pile of steel girders, concrete and glass where **Slayers, Inc. **once stood and her old home was now nothing but a pile of burnt and broken wood and ashes. She wasn't allowed to go see for herself, but Buffy saw pictures of the utter destruction of the warehouse and 2 surrounding blocks where Faith and Dawn had been killed, it almost seemed as if a giant foot came down and squashed the area flat.

But it was who had done this to her and why that was the final straw for Buffy. With Faith and Giles dead and Willow somewhere in England, the responsibility fell to Buffy to organize the resistance to the SDA. In an odd alliance Buffy met with her opposites in the Demon underworld and forged a temporary alliance against the SDA. And with that it came to pass for the first and last time Slayer and Demon stood side to side against the humans and their armies.

For the next 2 years Buffy fought a running battle across the planet with her erstwhile demonic allies against the SDA, fighting for time while the different Covens and Seers sought an answer to this war. When the answer finally came it left everyone shocked, because their choice had become; to leave Earth forever or die fighting humanity…

Xander pushed the smaller, broken pieces of concrete and plaster off of him and stood up slowly, surveying the room as he did. The front part of the room was collapsed and anyone there Xander guessed was dead, the only reason he wasn't was because it seemed the large and heavy holo-table took the brunt of whatever hit the bunker. Brushing some of the plaster off of him and wiping his face Xander started looking around for Field Marshall von Brest.

But all he seemed to find were piles of dirt and ash, seeing there was no reason to stay here Xander made his way towards the stairs and passed the room where he knew the captive Witches were being held while they shielded the bunker. Making a decision Xander moved to the door and opened it, closing it just as quickly as the stench of death filled the hallway. "God Willow! What did you do?" Xander murmured to himself as he headed back to the stairs.

The sight of the four bodies that had burst apart like over-ripe melons was one that he knew would haunt his dreams for a long time to come. On his way out Xander found 2 SDA soldiers who were alive as well and the three made their way out of bunker. But what greeted them up top made all of them wonder if staying might not have been a better choice.

The land was grey and dead and it reminded Xander of pictures he'd seen of the moon but minus the impact craters from meteors. All around him Xander could find nothing green or alive, there was no sound of birds or insects or even the wind for that matter and every tree was just a skeleton. It was as if he was on another planet, if not for the vehicles and tanks of the SDA's Fourth Army that sat unmoving around him. But there was no sign of anyone else alive. "Come on, let's grab a ride and get out of here." Xander said to the 2 SDA soldiers who didn't speak a word of English and started walking towards a small jeep about 100' feet away.

The gate had closed with a thunderous clap, signaling its destruction. Looking around, Buffy saw rolling plains and blue skies of their 'new home'. With that Buffy put her mind to getting everything organized and ready to move out.

They'd traveled East for a day before finding a small valley and after a quick search of the area decided to make this their temporary home. It had water, trees for building some semi-permanent buildings to house the younger children and the injured and there was an abundant amount of deer-like animals for food if they needed.

**1 Week Later…**

"So what do you think of this world so far, Faith?" Buffy asked as she put her arm around Faith's waist.

Shrugging, "Not much too tell yet B." With that Faith kissed Buffy on the nose. "But you're here, so it can't be all bad..." Faith added with a grin.

"I never wanted her to die. I thought that we'd have more time to get everyone out. But it started to fall apart too fast and Kenn's unit was the closest and best we had to hold them off longer..." Buffy said wistfully.

Faith sensed the guilt that was eating away at Buffy, "She knew that B. Just like she knew what she had to do." Faith bit off the rest of what she was going to say. Kennedy had told her of the dream she'd had, but now wasn't the time to say anything. Buffy needed to put this to rest behind her first and the best way to do that was to focus her on the tasks at hand.

"So what was the final tally through the Gate?" Faith asked switching gears.

"678 Slayers, 195 Witches, 8 Mages and another 120 kids, not including the wounded which is about another 185. So about 700-800 total."

"That's a good more than I thought." Faith said in some surprise. "But we'll need everyone to start from scratch though."

"But we left so many more dead behind Faith. Whether it was on one of the many battlefields or someplace else. Before the war there were about 1,200 Slayers and even more Witches, a few odd number of Seers, Psychics, Hedge Mages and others…"

"But it's the ones we did save B. We remember the ones we lost and do our best to move on."

**1 Earth Week later...**

Xander came back to the area that had already been nicknamed 'the Deathlands' by those who'd seen them. But now he was bringing the Joint Chiefs of the SDA back to survey the results of the battle and to see if the new batch of Witches had any better luck than the last 2 had before them.

"This is it people." Xander said as the Lynx helicopter set down. "Welcome to Hell or what used to known as Fort William, Scotland."

"So then this Willow did all this?" Lieutenant General Glen Cobaire of the US Air Force and the new head of the Joint Chiefs asked.

"Yes and I tried to warn you..."

"Then its good we got rid of them once and for all isn't it gentlemen?" General Cobaire said as he looked at the other 4 members of the Joint Chiefs.

"Huh?" Xander asked as he looked on in surprise. "What are you talking about? Willow kicked our ass and they got away!"

"No they didn't, son. They were wiped out to the last one when in a desperate act they destroyed themselves and everything around them when they saw that they couldn't escape by using a nuclear device that they had stolen."

Shaking his head, "Are you nuts? They got away! This was just Willow's good bye present!"

General Cobaire walked over to Xander, "No Xander they didn't and that's how it's going to go down in the books too. People will be too terrified to move on if they think that these 'Slayers' and 'Witches' can come back at any time so it has to end here, just like they did."

"Besides we have more pressing matters such as the demon outbreaks in the Soviet Union, northern Germany and Saudi Arabia. We need to contend with those things first."

"I guess," Xander said reluctantly. "I just don't like the idea of giving up hunting them down once and for all. I think it's a mistake..." Xander said, refusing to let of his obsession to destroy them for what they did.

"No, it would be a mistake to try right now. First we focus on the demon problems, those are our primary concerns now." General Cobaire said firmly.

**Continued in the next story, "Changing Destiny"**


End file.
